Roop Raj Challenges Trump Over 72% Venezuela Crime Statistics: VIDEO

After local Michigan reporter Roop Raj asked former President Donald Trump about the source of his dubious claim about Venezuelan criminals entering the United States, Trump was criticized for noticeably speaking at the moment he was confronted was at a loss.

Raj, reporting for Fox 2 Detroit, began by asking whether Trump is following his “beliefs or the polls” on the issue of abortion rights, considering Trump's history of shifting gears on the issue.

Trump replied:

“I follow my beliefs and what we do with states’ rights. I also follow the law, and if it is enforced in the states, then it is the rights of the states, then the state will decide.”

“Now the state decides through votes and the votes will be tougher in some cases and very loose in some cases. I think Michigan will actually be very relaxed.”

The conversation came to a close and Trump offered “a statistic before we go” to attack President Joe Biden on immigration:

“Venezuela was very criminal. They recently announced a 72% drop in crime over the last year. Do you know why? They brought all their criminals from Venezuela straight to the good old USA and Biden allowed them to do it. It's a…”disgrace.”

When Raj asked him to explain where these numbers came from, Trump stumbled:

“Uhhh, I guess I took them from the papers in this case. I think it's a federal declaration or, well, they're actually from Venezuela. They come from Venezuela.”

Raj simply concluded:

“We need to check that.”

You can see their exchange in the video below.

After the interview, Trump was almost immediately mocked.

Trump has previously claimed that Venezuelan immigration is having an impact on U.S. national crime statistics, although with a different number.

At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on April 2, he declared that crime in Venezuela was “down 67% because they take their gangs and criminals and very cleverly bring them to the United States.”

However, Politifact, a nonprofit project of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, refuted the claim, noting that while crime rates in Venezuela have fallen, the actual decline is estimated to be around 20% to 30%, rather than the 67% Trump claimed .

The decline is attributed to several factors, including economic challenges and the consolidation of organized crime, rather than to Venezuela allegedly sending its criminals to the United States, as Trump claims.

Trump claims Biden's immigration policies are too lenient and calls crimes committed by undocumented immigrants “Biden migrant crime.”

Trump has used inflammatory language to describe undocumented immigrants, calling them “animals” when discussing alleged criminal activity and declaring they are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Critics have condemned his rhetoric as xenophobic and reminiscent of Nazi language, with Trump claiming he was unaware of Adolf Hitler's use of similar expressions.